Global IT Outage
This past Friday, millions of Windows users opened up their computers to login for the workday, only to find the “blue screen of death.” Flights were grounded, delayed, and cancelled, ATMs weren’t functioning, hotels couldn’t accept check-ins, and freight deliveries were halted. Many businesses had to put their work for the day on pause, and immediately people were worried about a cyberterrorist attack.
Thankfully, the reason for these issues was a much more benign cause. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company, had completed a routine and automatic software update that contained a mistake in the code. This update affected somewhere around 30,000 customers, with Microsoft confirming on Saturday that around 8.5 million Windows devices were taken offline.
These issues are presumed to be resolved at this point, but the downtime for so many organizations has had a negative affects on productivity, which could cause economic issues for certain CrowdStrike customers. This global IT outage could also open up those affected to a number of new cyberthreats, with hackers being able to take advantage of the vulnerability that the outage opened companies up to.
Learning from the Outage
Eric O’Neill, a former FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence operative and cybersecurity expert, suggests that moving forward, the best way for Crowdstrike to prevent a mistake on this scale from happening again is to roll out updates gradually. By starting with one group, testing the results, and then sending it out to more people, CrowdStrike would be able to make sure that coding works correctly under different environments.
As for other companies, there is a lot to learn in the mistakes of CrowdStrike. This should encourage companies and even individual people to heighten their level of cybersecurity and overall preparedness. When so many businesses and people can all at once be majorly affected, it gives people a better perspective on how they should handle their cybersecurity. IT management becomes not just an expense, but an essential piece of running a company successfully.
One mistake shouldn’t be able to prevent a business from performing all functions, and relying on simplistic cybersecurity practices allows that to take place. When you revise your strategy to emphasize stronger IT management, whether that means hiring a managed service provider (MSP) to assist your in-house IT, or outsourcing all of your IT to an MSP, your business is better protected. It may be more expensive than normal, but fitting an MSP into the budget prevents your business from potentially losing a lot of money.
Many businesses will struggle to rationalize paying for extra protection over something that may never happen to them, which is understandable and economical. However, when some of the largest companies in the world (almost every single airline, for example) can lose millions in revenue due to a coding mistake, it makes top-of-the-line IT management services worth every cent.
If you want to make sure your company is protected from risks like those that befell CrowdStrike’s customers, you can reach out to us by giving us a call at (361)653-1777 or by filling out a form at https://straightedgetech.com/contact-us/.
